National News at a Glance

Divided on Strikes, Democrats and Republicans Press for Clearer Syria Strategy

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill offered varying degrees of support for the airstrikes Friday against Syria, but lawmakers almost universally pressed the administration for a broader strategy in the region. Top administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, gave advance notice Friday to key congressional leaders about their decision to punish President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack. “The president needs to lay out our goals, not just with regard to ISIS, but also the ongoing conflict in Syria and malign Russian and Iranian influence in the region,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Police Charge Michigan Man Who Fired at a Black Teenager Asking for Directions

Brennan Walker, 14, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, slept through his alarm Thursday and was going to miss the school bus, so he decided to walk to school. He ended up in a subdivision, and when he had gone in a circle, he knocked on a door to ask for help. A woman answered, he said, and began yelling. Brennan saw a man come downstairs and grab a shotgun, so he ran. The man followed, according to home security camera footage, and fired a single shot from a shotgun; Brennan was not hit. On Friday, officials charged Jeffery Zeigler, 53, with assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Drug Company Efforts to Dodge Generics Come Under Scrutiny

Trump administration officials, seeking ways to lower drug costs, are targeting pharmaceutical companies that refuse to provide samples of their products to generic drug companies, making it impossible to create inexpensive generic copies of a brand-name medicine. Generic drug developers need samples of brand-name drugs to show that a generic copy is equivalent to the original. The maneuvers by brand-name drug firms, officials said, “frustrate the ability of generic firms to purchase the doses of a branded drug that they need to run their studies.” The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the practice, which it says can forestall generic competition.

Found Footage Reveals Wreckage of 1906 San Francisco Quake

On Saturday night, a theater in Fremont, California, offered a fresh look at a tragic chapter in U.S. history with a nine-minute silent film. The film, much of it previously thought to be lost, shows the ruins left by the earthquake that ravaged San Francisco 112 years ago, shot by the Miles Bros. film studio in San Francisco. The rediscovered work is a fitting follow-up to the famous Miles Bros. production “A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire,” which shows the bustling city just days before the earthquake, its inhabitants unaware of the disaster to come on April 18, 1906.

Caribou in the Lower 48 States Are ‘Functionally Extinct’

The battle to save the gray ghosts — the only herd of caribou in the Lower forty-eight states — has been lost. A recent aerial survey shows that this international herd of southern mountain caribou, which spends part of its year in the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho and Washington near the Canadian border, has dwindled to just three animals and should be considered “functionally extinct,” experts say. In 2009, the herd, the southernmost in North America, had about 50 animals and was declining. The root cause of the extirpation of this herd and the decline of others in Canada is extensive industrial development in British Columbia, experts say.

Metal Detectors the Norm at Schools and Ballparks, But Not State Capitols

Even in this era of active shooter seminars and gun control debates, more than one-third of the country’s state capitols lack the kinds of security measures that have become routine at many middle schools, museums and big-league ballparks. There has been a trend toward tightening. Fewer than two dozen states had metal detectors at the public entrances of their capitols in 2008, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; now the figure is more than 30. Security experts say state capitols could be appealing targets, but some public officials worry that metal detectors might deter people from visiting and demonstrating in halls of power that have always been accessible.